Swathes of desert but oases of progress

摘要

While its richer and grander neighbours quarrel and cheat, modest Mali looks askance at Cote d'Ivoire (struggling to reunite a divided country) and Nigeria (making a hash of democracy again), as it makes quiet progress. As a result, on April 29th its people re-elected their president, Amadou Toumani Toure, for a second five-year stint in office. Meanwhile, Mali's almost equally poor and sandy neighbour to the west, Mauritania, has had a similar success, with its first free election since independence in 1960.